Pushing boundaries

Horsham Regional Art Gallery curator Alison Eggleton and Ararat Regional Art Gallery director Anthony Camm have combined forces to curate a new exhibition.

The pair has selected textile and fibre art items to present Enmeshed: Woven artworks from the Ararat Regional Art Gallery collection into the Horsham gallery’s newly renovated spaces.

Ms Eggleton said the exhibition spanned the heady days of the 1970s through to now and featured works by formative influences such as John Corbett, Ewa Pachuka and Jutta Fedderson, alongside more contemporary artists including Kate Just, Sebastian Di Mauro and Lucy Irvine, who took the idea of weaving in fresh, new directions.

Enmeshed explores the ways artists use textile and fibre materials and techniques to push the boundaries of contemporary practice, from large textile works that soften public spaces; works that reference gender, cultural identity and the relationship to the body; through to innovative works that combine unconventional materials with reference to weaving traditions.

“Ararat Regional Art Gallery is Australia’s most dedicated presenter and collector of contemporary textile art,” Ms Eggleton said.

“Since the mid-1970s the gallery has boldly asserted its leadership in this field with works that revive and re-imagine traditional and modern textile craft.

“They could not have imagined that within 40 years the gallery would hold such a premier collection in Victoria and arguably in Australia. “It is this we wish to acknowledge.’ The exhibition will be in Horsham Regional Art Gallery until March 4.